Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David, who is currently in prison for his alleged role in a massive corruption scandal, transferred hundreds of thousands of shekels over the past two years to the left-wing Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Channel 14 reported.

According to sources familiar with the details, funds were used by one of Israel’s most powerful organizations for a political struggle, in which workers’ money was used at the sole discretion of the Histadrut chairman.

The Histadrut is a powerful body with an annual budget of over one billion shekels. The chairman’s salary is over a million shekels a year. Just a few months ago, senior Histadrut officials arranged to raise their own salaries, even as wages in the public sector were being cut and frozen due to the costs of the war.

Arnon Bar-David played a key role in the protests against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (ostensibly against his plan for judicial reform). When Netanyahu fired then-defense minister Yoav Gallant from his position in March 2023, Bar-David launched a nationwide strike that shut down the country and effectively halted the reform process.

The move sparked strong criticism among Histadrut members, many of whom are right-wing voters who felt they were funding a political organization acting against them.

Bar-David also allocated funds to support anti-government protest activities and calls to end the war, organized transportation for leftist protestors, and frequently criticized the prime minister and his government on political matters.

The Hostages Forum is run by leftists, and in many ways, the organization’s activities are a continuation of the pre-October 7 protests against the Netanyahu government. Relatives of hostages reported that the organization even refused to work with the families of hostages with right-wing views.

Iris Chaim, the mother of Yotam Hy’d, who was abducted to Gaza and was later accidentally killed by IDF fire after he escaped his captors, recently revealed shocking information about what went on behind the scenes at the Hostages Forum.

“I wasn’t connected to the Forum and didn’t agree to speak according to the propaganda sheet they tried to push on me from time to time,” she said in an interview with Galey Yisrael. “What mattered to me was not to create more division within Israel.”

“The Forum operates according to an agenda, with daily messages sent to the media, and everyone is expected to speak according to their messages. This is how they operated from the onset—even before the ground war in Gaza began.”

“I’m an independent person, and I have my own ideas. I looked at the document they gave me before a scheduled media interview, and it said that I should say that I’m afraid the IDF will kill my son, that I can’t sleep at night, and that I lack trust in the IDF. I remind you that this was before the ground war in Gaza even began.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)